Ten days can be said to be short or long, but for a war that is stuck in persistence, it is just the blink of an eye. On the sixth day of September, Zhou Buyi received a reply from Huaibei, saying that Guo Huai and Huang Quan were ready and would start the attack on Bagong Mountain in three days. He hoped that he would act quickly and make sure to attack Wu. Before the people could react, they defeated the Lu'an defenders and cut into the Wu army's belly and back.
This plan had been decided a long time ago. Although there were various accidents on the Bagong Mountain battlefield, there were no major changes in strategy, and the plan was not changed. After all, Liu Xie has always used Zhou Buyi as his trump card to win, and this time is no exception. Just talking about the major and minor wars in the past few years, no war was as dangerous as this one, and many soldiers felt a little scared about it. Therefore, before setting off, many soldiers from the front team left letters home and entrusted them to the leader of the rear team. Once the situation was unfavorable, these letters would be the last to be written.
Fortunately, the commander-in-chief Zhou Buyi could always keep calm. On the day of departure, when all the troops were gathering in formation, Zhou Buyi dressed lightly and simply wore only an autumn suit before he came out to inspect the soldiers. He talked and laughed with the generals calmly and looked as usual. It didn't feel like he was going to fight, but rather like he was taking people out to hunt. Then when he ordered the whole army to move out, he beat the drums himself. The general's courage to treat the enemy as if they were nothing naturally gave the soldiers a great encouragement, and some of their original timidity was dispelled by the sound of the drums.
But is Zhou Buyi really sure? Not really.
The plan called for him to be caught off guard, but the scale of the operation of the 70,000-strong army was too vast, and it was impossible to completely conceal the traces. Especially when walking in Huainan, which the Wu people have occupied for a long time, even if the Wu people don't send scouts, the local people will take the initiative to inform them. Therefore, for the Han army, if they want to achieve unexpected results, the only option is to use high-quality troops and quick speed. But how easy is it to march quickly in enemy territory? Once you take a detour and waste time, the news will leak out first. Even if Zhou Buji found a guide in advance, Wu Jun could not be prevented from setting up sentries halfway. What's more, after a long-distance attack, the soldiers must be extremely tired. It is also a difficult problem to defeat the Liu'an defenders under such circumstances.
But the battlefield is like this. No one can be completely sure. Every decision is a big gamble. The military sage Sun Wu is afraid of this kind of big gamble, so he said that defeating the enemy's soldiers without fighting is a good thing. For Zhou Buji, now that the decision has been made, he will not complain. Only one who believes in his own gambling luck can be a good gambler.
Before setting off, except for transporting grain and baggage, he stopped all other affairs in the army and ordered the soldiers to rest for three days and eat for three days to recharge their batteries. He also chose the time of departure during the day, just to make it easier to rush on the road at dawn. Before leaving, the soldiers saw that he looked calm, but Zhou Buyi rarely said harsh words to all the officers under his command. He said: "Once you set off, you must go all out to follow the front army and never rest without authorization. , if there is any violation, your Majesty will deal with it personally!"
After saying that, Zhou Buyi turned his horse around, picked up the reins, and galloped away surrounded by his disciples. The generals did not dare to neglect, and immediately returned to their respective departments to reorganize the army. A continuous stream of Han knights rode out of the camp. The sound of horse hooves was like thunder that resounded north and south of the Huai River. There were only thousands of auxiliary troops in the baggage train. , watching the rolling iron stream go away in the camp.
Although Zhou Buji's determination was revealed, after the forced march began, the generals were still shocked by the speed of the generals. Zhou Buji personally took charge of the front army and ordered the forward cavalry to change horses every hour. In just half a day, he had passed through the dense water network to the west of Wuyun Mountain and arrived at a small river called Yueshui. Calculating the distance traveled, it was over a hundred miles. Zhou Buyi only rested here for two moments, and after letting his horses drink water, he continued to march south at this speed. He ignored most of the army behind him, which was now miles away.
The accompanying chief secretary Deng Ai was greatly surprised by this move. Although he was from a humble background and dared to endure hardship, he had never experienced such a high-intensity march. Seeing the surrounding scenery passing by quickly made him feel a little dizzy and tired. After reluctantly touching his face with cold water from the water bag, he caught up with Zhou Bujie and asked, "The general is walking so fast, without any care." We're in the rear, aren't we afraid that the army will get lost?"
Zhou Buji looked around the surrounding terrain and replied: "Every mile, I will leave a rider halfway to guide the way. This can still lead to getting lost, unless they are all idiots."
It turned out that the general had already made arrangements. After hearing this, Deng Ai was very impressed, but new doubts arose in his heart. He then asked Zhou Buyi and said: "If this continues, after we arrive in Liu'an, the main force may not have arrived yet." , how to fight against the Wu thief?"
Unexpectedly, Zhou Buyi chuckled, pointed behind him and said: "There are six thousand elites in our front army. They are all the elites of the country's hundreds of battles. They are not comparable to the mediocre ones on the right. Even if there are a hundred thousand troops in front of us, they are not afraid, let alone the six thousand." A mere enemy?"
Just at dusk that day, the sun was setting over the Western Mountains, the sky was gloomy, and the boundary between the sky and the ground gradually became blurred. The earth and the twilight were half integrated, but it still could not hide the outline of Lu'an City. The Han cavalry saw the dark shadow of the city wall from a distance, and immediately noticed that there was an abnormal trace of darkness extending beside the city wall. They quickly guessed the truth: the city was not large enough to station tens of thousands of Wu troops, so the Wu people The troops were divided and a camp was stationed outside the city.
At this time, Deng Ai led seven cavalry forward to explore the enemy. They were walking among the endless shallow hills, large and small. The horses' hoofs were slipping on the semi-wet and semi-dry land. Both the horses and the people were constantly breathing and exhaling. Despite the hardship, they still persisted in exploring forward. Suddenly, after crossing a mound, they encountered more than ten Wu people wearing autumn clothes on the leeward slope to the west.
These Wu people put their horses next to them and sat around the fire to roast a deer. They had obviously just hunted, and they fully expected that enemies would rush down the slope. They had no time to mount their horses and hurriedly reached for the bows and arrows that were still lying nearby. However, after just one shot, Deng Ai and others' counterattack arrived. Deng Ai first dodged an arrow by turning sideways, then immediately grabbed the arrow and stood up to fight back. The heavy arrow hit the Wu man at the front, breaking his unprotected back.
After shooting the arrow, the Han cavalry had already flown down the slope and were only a few dozen steps away from the Wu people. Seeing that they could not escape, the remaining Wu people simply stood there, threw down their weapons and charged at the Han army. Signaling for surrender. But Deng Ai still did not dare to be careless. After he ordered his entourage to ride horses to surround him, he approached the Wu people to talk. After asking about it, I learned that after the Wu people won for a while, they were so satisfied that they thought the Han army was still resting and reorganizing, and the Double Ninth Festival was approaching, so they ordered the entire army to rest for three days. Originally there were 40,000 defenders left here, but now most of them were scattered around, and there were only a few thousand left in the camp.
Deng Ai was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately rode back to report to Zhou Bujie. Zhou Buyi had already set up a banner and was ordering his men to dismount and take a rest. After listening to Deng Ai's report, he smiled and whispered: "It seems that destiny is with Han, and this industry has become a success." .”
After saying that, he immediately sent an order to the whole army to eat on the spot. After resting for two quarters of an hour, he directly launched an attack on Wu Jun's camp. At this time, the Han cavalry were tired after running around for a day, but after the training in the previous days, they were within a tolerable range. After hearing the news that Wu Jun was not prepared, they all realized that this was a rare fighter plane, so they immediately regrouped and took care of the weapons they brought.
The Wu people in Lu'an were actually aware of the arrival of the Han army. After all, this group of people came from the northwest and looked very dazzling under the last rays of the setting sun. But at this time, the Wu people were scattered in all directions, and they had no time to communicate in a short period of time, let alone organize a defense. The news was reported to the guard Pan Zhang. Pan Zhang was also stunned for a moment. He murmured: "How come the thieves came so fast? I didn't receive the news." It turned out that he had posted sentries on the road, but unfortunately, the sentries were The horse power of the Han cavalry was far less than that of the Han cavalry. After the Han army forwards had arrived at the gate of Lu'an City, these sentries were still on their way.
Seeing that the Wu people had no time to resist, Zhou Buyi naturally would not miss this opportunity. He ordered his subordinates to be fully armed and hold long spears, and then lit the torches. A fire dragon suddenly rose from the dark sky and earth, and they illuminated the Han cavalry. Their iron armor reflected the brilliance of stars in the early night, and what was even more eye-catching was the long tree they erected, pointing neatly at the sky. The cold light reflected from the top of the tree looked like a crystal clear stream from a distance. .
Soon, the Han cavalry launched an attack on the Wu camp next to the city. Like a strong wind, they broke the antlers on the outside of the camp and poured in at every gate of the camp. What greeted Han Qi's eyes was the panic-stricken faces of the Wu people. It was almost a charge. The temporary front formed by the Wu people was shattered like paper. Then there were noisy sounds of the Wu people running for their lives and begging for mercy. .
Pan Zhang was watching this scene from the top of the city, feeling desperate in his heart. He originally had a glimmer of illusion that the soldiers in the camp could resist the Han army with help, but now it has been completely shattered. Fragments of flames have begun to ignite in various corners of the camp outside the city. He knows that otherwise, How long will it take before the camp will be completely engulfed in flames? The only thing he could do now was to preserve the remaining defenders in the city, so he closed the city gate tightly. No matter how many Wu people were crying and shouting outside the city, he would never go out to fight.
Zhou Buyi had no intention of storming Lu'an. There were at most two thousand defenders in the city, and the Wu people guarding the camp had been completely torn to pieces. He looked at the blazing fire and waited outside the city for half an hour. Finally, a follow-up cavalry envoy caught up and asked Zhou Bujie, "Envoy, most of the troops are less than three miles away from here. Generals, please give me permission." Let me ask, should you continue on your way or rest on the spot?"
Zhou Bujiu immediately replied: "Let's rest here. We will go straight to Hefei early tomorrow morning!"
